TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso said on Tuesday that the government highly appreciated the Bank of Japan’s decision to switch to an open-ended commitment to buying assets next year and double its inflation target to 2 percent.

He said he hopes that the BOJ will pursue strong monetary easing to beat deflation, but he sees no need to revise the BOJ law to boost government control over the central bank.

Aso was speaking at a joint news conference with BOJ Governor Masaaki Shirakawa and Economics Minister Akira Amari after the government and the central bank concluded a joint statement on strengthening ties to beat deflation.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe also said separately that the joint statement by the government and the central bank was epoch-making for monetary policy and that Japan would carry out a “regime change” in macro-economic strategy.